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High interest for use in tools despite some reported snags SAN JOSE, CALIF.--The market for copper process semiconductor manufacturing tools is hot and apparently getting hotter, according to industry insiders. […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.--At a time when many semiconductor companies are cutting back because of decreasing revenues, YieldUP International is growing at an impressive rate. In February, the company reported annual […]

San Jose, Calif. -- Over the past year, services has become a major buzzword in the electronic design automation (EDA) industry. Now, at least one company is trying to stir […]

Spec problem with ALTA 3500 leads to delay, impact on revs; no problem seen with $25M order, largest ever Hayward, Calif. -- In one fell swoop last week, Etec Systems […]

San Jose, Calif.--One year after the mega-merger between KLA Instruments and Tencor Instruments produced KLA-Tencor, the company has released the 2200 series of products based on the combination of the […]

Santa Clara, Calif.--Applied Materials last week introduced a pair of integrated wafer defect detection systems known as the WF-736 DUO and WF-731. The systems are targeted toward different applications, but […]

Santa Clara, Calif.--Applied Materials last week announced that it received three large orders worth more than $235 million. Those orders, combined with several other large production orders announced by other […]

Wilsonville, Ore.--Mentor Graphics suffered a pair of legal setbacks this month in ongoing patent litigation with Quickturn Design Systems. One setback came when Judge James Redden of the U.S. District […]

FEI Co. received a multiple-unit order of approximately $5.5 million for its DualBeam systems from a leading U.S. manufacturer of data storage and semiconductor products. The systems each offer multiple […]

Ferrofluidics, which recently sold its Systems division to Kayex, a unit of General Signal, sold a second 300-millimeter silicon crystal-growing system to a customer which will be using it to […]

Cerprobe Corp. adopted a poison pill recently. The board approved the declaration of a dividend distribution of one preferred share purchase right on each outstanding share of its common stock. […]

Ion Systems unveiled the Auto-Clean System, a new option now available for the Precision SC family of ionizing blowers. According to Ion Systems, the Auto-Clean option is the industry's first […]

Millipore warned investors that its 3Q earnings will be below current analysts' estimates which are in the 10-15 cents per share range. The company expects a loss for the quarter […]

Fremont, Calif.'s Lam Research released dual damascene applications for the company's 4520WLE advanced dielectric etch system. The released applications are being used in production of devices with copper interconnects at […]

Watkins-Johnson said it received a multiple-system order for its WJ-1500 atmospheric-pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) system from Samsung Electronics of Korea. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. […]

Poor business cited by WJ (3rd time); GaSonics (2nd time); KSA (1st time) Continued poor business conditions in the semiconductor equipment and materials businesses forced three prominent companies to announce […]

Etec, EKC chalk up impressive numbers in niche markets HAYWARD, CALIF.--It pays to call Hayward home. Okay, that may be an overstatement, but Etec Systems and EKC Technology, both corporate […]

Eaton Thermal Processing Systems (TPS) sold a Compact II fast ramp vertical furnace to 'a leading U.S. semiconductor manufacturer.' The system shipped at the end of June. It will be […]

Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs and Emcore, a supplier of integrated compound semiconductor production tools and software, teamed up recently to develop technologies to grow materials required for devices used in […]

ASM Europe BV, a subsidiary of ASM International BV, last week shipped the A412 dual-reactor vertical furnace for 300mm processing to several customers for evaluation. The A412 combines two vertical […]

Outsourcing is becoming an increasingly prominent trend among semiconductor capital equipment companies. As the industry matures and companies concentrate more and more on a smaller group of core competencies, equipment […]

General Scanning, Inc. reported the first installation at Tucson, Ariz.-based Burr-Brown of its M310 Monolithic Trim System. Burr-Brown is a supplier of proprietary, high-performance analog and mixed-signal […]

Brooks Automation, Inc. unveiled a new line-up of vacuum robots to meet an expanding range of 200mm and 300mm semiconductor wafer handling requirements. Brooks introduced the first in a series […]

A series of product enhancements for existing Nikon Step-and-Repeat (NSR) lithography systems has been introduced on the world market by Nikon Corp. Nikon said these hardware and software upgrades give […]

SpeedFam International of Chandler, Ariz., introduced a software enhancement to its Auriga CMP platform called the Equipment Virtual Controller (EVC). The EVC option maximizes the performance of SpeedFam's CMP system […]

KLA-Tencor of San Jose, Calif., introduced the HRP-220, the newest addition to the company's HRP-2XX series of surface profilers for semiconductor applications. According to the company, the new system provides […]

Plasma-Therm logged the sale of a Versalock plasma processing system to Motorola for R&D activities. The system will be used to develop masks for advanced lithography techniques. 'The results obtained […]

Applied Materials and Leica Microsystems will cooperate to provide customers with a full set of systems for defect detection, classification and source analysis, the companies said. As part of this […]

Canon U.S.A. began construction of a 172,000-square-foot facility in San Jose, Calif., to house its northern California operations and the new headquarters of its Semiconductor Equipment division. Canon said the […]

Tegal Corp. said an unnamed Japanese chip maker placed a production reorder for a Tegal 6500 series etch system to be used in the manufacture of non-volatile FeRAM (ferroelectric random […]

Nanometrics and Innotech Corp. entered into an agreement under which Innotech will distribute Nanometrics' automated semiconductor metrology equipment in Japan. Innotech will provide exclusive sales, maintenance and applications support for […]

Beaverton, Ore.'s Integrated Measurement Systems (IMS) introduced Orion, an engineering test station aimed at the memory engineering test market. Orion allows SRAM, DRAM and SDRAM manufacturers to characterize and verify […]

Silicon Manufacturing Partners (SMP), a joint venture foundry between Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing of Woodlands, Singapore, and Lucent Technologies of Murray Hill, N.J., placed an order worth more than $4 million […]

Amkor Technology, Eagle Test Systems, Fico Systems Integration and ESH introduced a parallel strip test product for integrated circuits. Amkor Technology is the first contract manufacturer to implement this type […]

Semitool sues Novellus, asserts copper tool patents infringed Kalispell, Mont.--Semitool, Inc. filed a patent infringement lawsuit last week against Novellus Systems, charging that Novellus' Sabre System copper electroplating tool infringes […]

U.S. companies lead the world markets for photomasks and mask-related production equipment, according to The Information Network, a market research firm based in New Tripoli, Pa. 'The photomask-making process involves […]

CFM Technologies, Inc. received an $8.6 million follow-on order from a 'major U.S. semiconductor manufacturer.' The order is for four Full-Flow 8100 Dual Vessel systems. The first system is due […]

Plasma-Therm, Inc. logged sales of a Shuttlelock 770 plasma processing system to Uppsala University in Sweden for use in the development of advanced micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) devices and an automotive […]

Fluoroware, Inc. added multi-layer blowmolding to the company's portfolio and released its first product to be manufactured by this new process -- the new FluoroPure high-density polyethylene (HDPE) drum. The […]

Photronics, Inc. recently provided Cypress Semiconductor with the advanced reticle technology and support for the production of their first 0.25-micron technology product. Devices were initially produced in Cypress' Technology Center […]

Mattson Technology signed an agreement to acquire Concept Systems Design, a global supplier of epitaxy systems. Mattson will issue approximately 800,000 shares of its common stock in exchange for the […]

Fremont, Calif.'s Therma-Wave introduced the Opti-Probe 5000 series thin-film measurement tools at last week's Semicon/West 98 in San Francisco. The new tools come equipped with one of four combinations of […]

San Jose-based AG Associates unveiled the newest addition to its family of rapid thermal processing (RTP) products -- Steampulse. Steampulse uses diluted steam as a process gas. According to AG, […]

Applied Materials released the Tanox xZ Centura. Applied called the new product a production-worthy, high-throughput system to deposit tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5), a high dielectric constant (high (kappa)) material that allows […]

Canon U.S.A., Inc.'s Semiconductor Equipment division, Santa Clara, Calif., introduced the FPA-5000ES2 scanning stepper. Canon bills the product as the industry's first 248-nanometer, deep-ultraviolet, step-and-scan system capable of realizing 0.18-micron […]

OnTrak Systems of San Jose, Calif., introduced Synergy Performa, a new copper post-CMP (chemical mechanical planarization) cleaning product developed specifically to address challenges posed by the emergence of copper interconnect. […]